Consider $a$ particles performing simple, symmetric, non-intersecting random walks, starting at points $2(j-1)$, $1\le j\le a$ at time 0 and ending at $2(j-1)+c-b$ at time $b+c$. This can also be interpreted as a random rhombus tiling of an $abc$-hexagon, or as a random boxed planar partition confined to a rectangular box with side lengths $a$, $b$ and $c$. The positions of the particles at all times gives a determinantal point process with a correlation kernel given in terms of the associated Hahn polynomials. In a suitable scaling limit we obtain non-intersecting Brownian motions which can be related to Dysons's Hermitian Brownian motion via a suitable transformation.
We compute the bulk limit of the correlation functions for the uniform measure on lozenge tilings of a hexagon. The limiting determinantal process is a translation invariant extension of the discrete sine process, which also describes the ergodic Gibbs measure of an appropriate slope.
We investigate certain measures induced by families of non-intersecting paths in domino tilings of the Aztec diamond, rhombus tilings of an abc-hexagon, a dimer model on a cylindrical brick lattice and a growth model. The measures obtained, e.g. the Krawtchouk and Hahn ensembles, have the same structure as the eigenvalue measures in random matrix theory like GUE, which can in fact be obtained from non-intersecting Brownian motions. The derivations of the measures are based on the Karlin-McGregor or Lindström-Gessel-Viennot method. We use the measure to show some asymptotic results for the mode…
We consider a random walk on the Manhattan lattice. The walker must follow the orientations of the bonds in this lattice, and the walker is not allowed to visit a site more than once. When both possible steps are allowed, the walker chooses between them with equal probability. The walks generated by this model are known to be related to interfaces for bond percolation on a square lattice. So it is natural to conjecture that the scaling limit is SLE$_6$. We test this conjecture with Monte Carlo simulations of the random walk model and find strong support for the conjecture.
We present an analytical approach to study simple symmetric random walks (RWs) on a crossing geometry consisting of a plane square lattice crossed by $n_l$ number of lines that all meet each other at a single point (the origin) on the plane. The probability density to find the walker at a given distance from the origin either in a line or in the plane geometry is exactly calculated as a function of time t. We find that the large time asymptotic behavior of the walker for any arbitrary number $n_l$ of lines is eventually governed by the plane geometry after a crossover time approximately given …
It is known that some matrix integrals over U(n) satisfy an sl(2,R)-algebra of Virasoro constraints. Acting with these Virasoro generators on 2-dimensional Schur function expansions leads to difference relations on the coefficients of this expansions. These difference relations, set equal to zero, are precisely the backward and forward equations for non-intersecting random walks. The transition probabilities for these random walks appear as the coefficients of an expansion of U(n)-matrix integrals (of the type above), by inserting in the integral the product of two Schur polynomials associated…
We construct the conditional version of $k$ independent and identically distributed random walks on $\R$ given that they stay in strict order at all times. This is a generalisation of so-called non-colliding or non-intersecting random walks, the discrete variant of Dyson's Brownian motions, which have been considered yet only for nearest-neighbor walks on the lattice. Our only assumptions are moment conditions on the steps and the validity of the local central limit theorem. The conditional process is constructed as a Doob $h$-transform with some positive regular function $V$ that is strongly …
We consider directed polymer models involving multiple non-intersecting random walks moving through a space-time disordered environment in one spatial dimension. For a single random walk, Alberts, Khanin and Quastel proved that under intermediate disorder scaling (in which time and space are scaled diffusively, and the strength of the environment is scaled to zero in a critical manner) the polymer partition function converges to the solution to the stochastic heat equation with multiplicative white noise. In this paper we prove the analogous result for multiple non-intersecting random walks st…
Discrete and continuous non-intersecting random processes have given rise to critical "infinite dimensional diffusions", like the Airy process, the Pearcey process and variations thereof. It has been known that domino tilings of very large Aztec diamonds lead macroscopically to a disordered region within an inscribed ellipse (arctic circle in the homogeneous case), and a regular brick-like region outside the ellipse. The fluctuations near the ellipse, appropriately magnified and away from the boundary of the Aztec diamond, form an Airy process, run with time tangential to the boundary. This pa…
We introduce an exactly-solvable model of random walk in random environment that we call the Beta RWRE. This is a random walk in $\mathbb{Z}$ which performs nearest neighbour jumps with transition probabilities drawn according to the Beta distribution. We also describe a related directed polymer model, which is a limit of the $q$-Hahn interacting particle system. Using a Fredholm determinant representation for the quenched probability distribution function of the walker's position, we are able to prove second order cube-root scale corrections to the large deviation principle satisfied by the w…
The greedy walk is a walk on a point process that always moves from its current position to the nearest not yet visited point. We consider here various point processes on two lines. We look first at the greedy walk on two independent one-dimensional Poisson processes placed on two intersecting lines and prove that the greedy walk almost surely does not visit all points. When a point process is defined on two parallel lines, the result depends on the definition of the process: If each line has a copy of the same realisation of a homogeneous Poisson point process, then the walk almost surely doe…
We consider families of non-colliding random walks above a hard wall, which are subject to a self-potential of tilted area type. We view such ensembles as effective models for the level lines of a class of $2+1$-dimensional discrete-height random surfaces in statistical mechanics. We prove that, under rather general assumptions on the step distribution and on the self-potential, such walks converge, under appropriate rescaling, to non-intersecting Ferrari--Spohn diffusions associated with limiting Sturm--Liouville operators. In particular, the limiting invariant measures are given by the squar…
We introduce an object called a decorated Young tableau which can equivalently be viewed as a continuous time trajectory of Young diagrams or as a non-intersecting line ensemble. By a natural extension of the Robinson-Schensted correspondence, we create a random pair of decorated Young tableaux from a Poisson point process in the plane, which we think of as a stochastic process in discrete space and continuous time. By using only elementary techniques and combinatorial properties, we identify this process as a Schur process and show it has the same law as certain non-intersecting Poisson walke…
It is well known that there are close connections between non-intersecting processes in one dimension and random matrices, based on the reflection principle. There is a generalisation of the reflection principle for more general (e.g. planar) processes, due to S. Fomin, in which the non-intersection condition is replaced by a condition involving loop-erased paths. In the context of independent Brownian motions in suitable planar domains, this also has close connections to random matrices. An example of this was first observed by Sato and Katori (Phys. Rev. E, 83, 2011). We present further exam…
The stochastic solutions to the Wigner equation, which explain the nonlocal oscillatory integral operator $Θ_V$ with an anti-symmetric kernel as {the generator of two branches of jump processes}, are analyzed. All existing branching random walk solutions are formulated based on the Hahn-Jordan decomposition $Θ_V=Θ^+_V-Θ^-_V$, i.e., treating $Θ_V$ as the difference of two positive operators $Θ^\pm_V$, each of which characterizes the transition of states for one branch of particles. Despite the fact that the first moments of such models solve the Wigner equation, we prove that the bounds of corr…
We develop a new toolbox for the analysis of the global behavior of stochastic discrete particle systems. We introduce and study the notion of the Schur generating function of a random discrete configuration. Our main result provides a Central Limit Theorem (CLT) for such a configuration given certain conditions on the Schur generating function. As applications of this approach, we prove CLT's for several probabilistic models coming from asymptotic representation theory and statistical physics, including random lozenge and domino tilings, non-intersecting random walks, decompositions of tensor…
We provide a proof that the stationary macroscopic current of particles in a random lattice Lorentz gas satisfies Fick's law when connected to particles reservoirs. We consider a box on a d+1 dimensional lattice and when $d\geq7$, we show that under a diffusive rescaling of space and time, the probability to find a current different from its stationary value is exponentially small in time. Its stationary value is given by the conductivity times the difference of chemical potentials of the reservoirs. The proof is based on the fact that in high dimension, random walks have a small probability o…
An explicit Fredholm determinant formula is derived for the multipoint distribution of the height function of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) with arbitrary right-finite initial condition. The method is by solving the biorthogonal ensemble/non-intersecting path representation found by [Sas05; BFPS07]. The resulting kernel involves transition probabilities of a random walk forced to hit a curve defined by the initial data. In the KPZ 1:2:3 scaling limit the formula leads in a transparent way to a Fredholm determinant formula, in terms of analogous kernels based on Browni…
